Enterprising approach: How to make doing business overseas plain sailing

22 July 2022 | 15 Shares

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Expanding into international markets represents an important milestone for companies. Get it right and the world becomes a global village with opportunities galore. Get it wrong and firms can feel like they’ve become gridlocked in city traffic, as they grapple with unfamiliar administration and lose momentum.

Finance teams might be on top of the rules and regulations in their own region, but there will inevitably be knowledge gaps that need to be filled as companies broaden their international reach. New hires take time to come on board, and consultants don’t come cheap, which raises the question – is there a better way? The answer, depending on the digital strategy at play, can increasingly be found by seeking out the right payments provider.

Client focus

Digital transformation is revolutionizing the financial world and companies large and small can leverage the uplift in transaction speeds, analytics capabilities, and more, by doubling down on how their payments are managed. Looking at the financial services market today, it’s clear that traditional institutions are facing stiff competition from providers that offer ‘digital-first’ services and have the means to grow with their clients and provide the right expertise at the right time.

Servicing international payments isn’t just about money transfer. Today, thanks to digital infrastructure, and the automated features that well-integrated systems can bring, commerce technology providers such as Payoneer can ramp up the support that they give to their customers. This includes helping not just with facilitating transactions, but also the tax administration that goes with them – for example, by including IRS 1042 forms in the workflow to streamline digital royalty payments to non-US residents, a boon for online marketplaces. The necessary data is collected efficiently and automatically sent to the relevant authorities.

Eliminating pain points

Bringing together the different financial elements involved in the international payment chain allows financial services providers to reduce the pain points for their clients. And this strategy serves as a rich source of added value for companies trading in overseas markets. Thanks to their global reach, digital payments firms can deliver savings in areas such as account management by reducing cross-border fees, while also giving clients more control over their transactions in domestic and foreign currencies.

The knock-on effect of this is that everyone benefits – sellers, vendors, contractors; all kinds of customers will approve of digital tools that reduce the friction of trading internationally. Companies can focus on their own talents and cut down on the time that they have to spend puzzling out their payments. Smartphone apps make it easy to track transactions, withdraw funds, and check pin numbers securely, whatever the time of day or night.

Powering the backend of these commerce-enabling services are digital ‘pipes’ that are changing the structure of global financial services. By making use of its network of local banking services, Payoneer illustrates how modern operators are well placed to settle client payments rapidly, without the delays that can be an issue with more traditional providers, who may be relying on outdated technology.

Wayfinding wisdom

Rethinking this financial ‘pipework’ puts international payment specialists in a prime position to offer their customers, from big firms to freelancers just starting out, access to a vast array of resources through a single portal. Popular services include tax reporting and exchange rate discovery, as we’ve touched on already. But commerce technology can go further still and help users to navigate data governance, data protection, and more.

The need to find the right payments partner becomes most acute when things don’t go to plan for companies in their international transactions. What do you do when payments are held up by defiant authorities overseas? Having a large network of international offices means that the right partner will be able to talk to governments on the ground on your behalf and help to release the payment by providing information that may have been missed. Again, digital infrastructure and the integration of financial services, keep delays to an absolute minimum.

International network

Clients that stand to gain from this transformation in the support for companies trading internationally include online sellers, IT outsourcing services, marketing businesses, wholesale operations, and more. Any firm with global aspirations will benefit from the creation of a fast, responsive, international network that makes doing business overseas feel as straightforward as trading locally.

Digital transformation is providing a powerful platform for business leaders to grow their companies, not just in their home market, but internationally – opening the door to millions of new sales. And knowing that help is at hand is giving users the confidence to grab hold of those opportunities and succeed.